A Dalek a Day Keeps the Doctor at Bay
by cryptically
Summary: Random!Drabbles. 9Rose and 10Rose. A collection of 100 word drabbles about the Doctor and Rose Tyler. Variety of genres, though all of them coming back to the same thing: companions and companionship.
1. Under the Sea: 9

A wide expanse of blue spreads out before her, like she's skimming over wave crests, no shore in sight. She feels cold breezes nip at her clothing, whipping around with gusty bravado, and she smiles, fascinated by how intensely, penetratingly blue the sea is here.

"Rose? You alright?" asks a worried Northern accent.

Rose blinks.

"Yeah, fine."

"You've just been staring a bit, thought something might be wrong."

Bollocks. It's already become a bad habit.

"Nah, it's nothing."

The Time Lord grins, and once more Rose Tyler finds herself lost in his eyes.

No, nothing at all.


	2. Fairy Tale: 9

It's just like some fantasy movie. Here he is with his enchanted phonebox and there she goes running after him, off to see the universe, muck about in time, slay some Daleks, and have adventures together.

It was a fairy tale romance: sort of inevitable, really. Only it's not the type of fairy tale with helpful gnomes and happy endings; no, this is the grim fantastic.

They dance, the world ends and she's on fire, he takes the light, and seals his fate with a kiss.

Holding the tear-stained pillow close, she's trapped, she's alone. And the fiction writes itself.


	3. Modes of Transportation: 9

**Author's Note:**

Wow. Back into the fandom majorly about a two-year break. Ten drabbles will also be posted in this series, so to make things easier for those who either want to only read about Nine or about only about Ten, the number of the Doctor will be included in the chapter title so as to steer away from possible spoilers or adhere to preferences. Otherwise, click on and enjoy.

--cy.

* * *

"Series of accidents," he says without prompting as they steer the TARDIS toward 34th century Venice.

Rose is a bit put out, thinking the flight path is off, having been hoping for hovering _vaporetti_ rather than a futuristic Cardiff. "What do you mean?"

"You asked me how I did it, got from place to place before you came around." He clarifies as the blue-green glow of the control panel reflects on his leather jacket and face. He suddenly looks like he's seen as many centuries as he claims.

That expression vanishes, replaced by a manic smile. "Much better like this."


	4. First Moves: 9

It's good their table is checkered because she might as well be playing chess.

Not because she's any good at chess, but she feels as though the pieces are aligning themselves as the Doctor returns with the order of chips (she paid, but made him get it). He's an ally, a king who reveals himself in wisps.

Something in her howls, begging her to recognize that powers are gathering in the distance, that she is a queen on a board stretching across time and space.

He watches her quizzically.

She grabs a chip and bites, a sweet crunch. "Where next?"


	5. Foreign Countries: 9

Rose Tyler, last human, well, last real human, puts the potted plant down and stares out at the Earth as the sun expands behind it.

Everything has become so strange. Blue hosts, bodily saliva, five billion years—her head hurts from all the alien-ness.

She's made bad decisions before. Plenty. But running off with a man—well, alien—one whom she's beginning to realize is really a complete stranger? Running so far that she can't get home because home is long gone?

She rubs her arms as she stares into the empty space outside, feeling cold for the first time.


	6. An Unbridgeable Rift: 9

"The only way they can cross over is through her."

"But that's not right!"

The gap between them now seems wider than ever. So many species and subspecies have fallen as the heels of his boots made a hasty escape, and he knows it. The Time War has reached places even he thought were safe, and if he can prevent it, just this once—

She's having none of it.

It's as though they are seeing each other for the first time truly as they are: earthly and galactic, human and Time Lord.

The space between their frigid stares seems infinite.


	7. Those Chasms Leapt Into Willingly: 10

He kicks a few rocks into the pit and whistles when he nears no sound.

"Tell Rose..."

It's this sort of thing that keeps him coming back: the thrill of adventure, of never knowing what's out there, something just waiting to be discovered.

He's seen it in her eyes, too, the same spark.

The darkness waits to swallow him as the sentence pauses on his lips, lips which have hers etched into their memory since his last death.

"What?"

What indeed? Why say what's always been so clear?

He smiles, though he knows she'll never see it.

"Oh, she knows."


	8. A Stranger at War: 9

She can't recognize his face.

Somewhere she read that love could bring out the best and the worst in people. But who's to say he's the same kind of people? Looking at him, his features have contorted into such rage and raw fury that she's having trouble finding the Doctor she knows in them.

What she really notices is that everything just seems so tired.

The dalek is wearily stretching in the sun. Rose's heart is racing so fast that it hurts. His eyes are dull black, deadened, and even his arms look exhausted from the weight of the weapon.


	9. He Only Lost Track of Time Once: 10

It's not like he never had the opportunity.

He's had it millions of times, every second sweeping past he could have chosen to whisper it into her ear, he could have taken her breath away underneath frozen waves, by a thousand suns, but he never did.

There was nothing to confess. She knew, she always knew, had to know, how could she not after he kissed the Time Vortex out of her?

She must have known that her hand could always find a place in his.

He closes his fingers around thin air as a star burns itself to ash.


	10. Magician's Last Act: 9 & 10

He called it a trick, Rose remembers. A little trick Time Lords do.

"Well, what's the rest of it?" She whispers at his prone form as she watches this new man, this stranger who claims to be someone she knew so well. "What's the counter-trick, the put-it-right trick?"

The man in the dressing gown isn't revealing anything. Her mum thinks she's lost her marbles. Rose isn't sure what to believe. Everything is different now, and all she wants is to do it all over: crash through her coffee table, race across the stars, hear him say "fantastic" one more time.


	11. Best Laid Plans: 9

She was supposed to be one more person he saved from certain doom, not a companion, not this close. She wasn't supposed to be anything.

When did it change, he wonders for a moment as they run through the city at night, when did she stop being a bystander and become a friend?

Months, days, weeks later and she's still surprising him, freeing him from Autons, persuading him to dance, becoming Bad Wolf. He knows he should recognize her pattern by now, but it never ceases to catch him off guard: that she always chooses saving him rather than running away.


	12. Last Laugh: 9

"Universe is always playing jokes." He says, not taking his eyes off the bars on the window. "This is just one of them."

Rose is about to retort that she doesn't find this funny, but decides not to.

"Well, come on then," she says instead, extending a hand to him, despite his askance glance. "Better savor the punchline while we can."

"I think you've got your jokes mixed up." He comments but stops, and they dance across the dusty floor, his cheek against hers.

Jack's catcall makes Rose stumble. The Doctor catches her and whispers in her ear, "Told you."


	13. Certain Criteria to be Met: 9

Since escaping alone was easier than with a group, he's found himself without companions other than destruction and catastrophe, and he's long been tired of them.

Time for a change of pace.

He never thought he'd end up imprisoned by Autons, about to be thrown into the Nestene Consciousness (or worse), but that's life for you.

The moment she refuses to run, he can't stop watching her. He follows every motion of her body as she swings down the chain rope to kick off his captors, her face flush with exhilaration.

From then on, he knows he has to ask.


	14. Disaster is Our Special This Evening: 9

Picking at her chips, Rose narrows her eyes. "You feeling okay?"

Mickey keeps giving her the strange, waxy smile that he's had all day. "'Course, sweetheart."

She frowns, disliking how he's talking, or really just _been_ lately. Something's out of place but she can't say what...

"Everything alright?" The waiter says, with an oddly familiar Northern accent.

Rose wonders what the man would do if she said no, asked him to put her boyfriend right, just like ordering another round of chips. Hesitating, she debates asking... but laughs—silly thought— about to wave him off just as the restaurant erupts.


End file.
